Bones of animals found in Panna tiger reserve

Bhopal: Bones of animals have been found from two places during digging in Madhya Pradesh`s Panna Tiger Reserve.

"Few bones and a jaw has been found from two places in Panna Tiger Reserve during digging for carrying out some developmental work," Madhya Pradesh Forest Minister Sartaj Singh told said.

He said initially it appears that the bones were of a bear and added it would be too early to comment that the jaw was of a tiger.

"The bones and the jaw has been sent to forensic laboratory for tests," Singh said.

He denied that huge quantity of jaws of tigers have been found. Only one jaw has been unearthed, he said.

Panna Tiger Reserve spread over an area 543 sq kms in Panna and Chhattarpur district situated in eastern Madhya Pradesh had become devoid of big cats last year, after which
two felines and a tiger were translocated there to revive the population of the animal.

The issue of disappearance of the big cat population in Panna, possibly due to poaching, was raised in Parliament and State Assembly last year.

The state government has set up a committee of experts to probe into the disappearance of tigers from the Panna tiger reserve, which four to five years back had around 35 big cats.